Monday, December 28, 2015

In the Old Testament, Jacob dreamed of a ladder to heaven, with angels walking up and down it. God spoke to Jacob in the dream, promising him the land on which he slept, for him and his descendants.

Jacob's Ladder is also one of the configurations which can be made with Cat's Cradle, a string game.

What, and who, really were angels? Are they still around? In what shape, size, hue?

Priests at temples, threatening, brokering connectivity with God for a price, politicians dabbling or deeply entrenched into manipulative politicking, hoarders of wealth ill-begotten by mal-corrupt-practices, all nooks and corners of pathways and roads, protecting and shielding criminals--

-- or have they fled, like God himself, in chaotic incomprehension of his creation, not being able to feel safe in the midst of burgeoning, criminally inventive mankind....

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Friday, December 25, 2015

Ruffled. Discontent, unrest, inequity, sinister intemperate activism... ... Among people around the world, but mostly among the largest of human populations, among the deprived ones who cannot comprehend or cope with pressures of shortages, unaffordable costs, unmitigated and instant recourse to violence, deprivation of basics like rudimentary food, water, timely medication,signs of relief from being engulfed by unexpected forces of inclement weather, political and socio- economic uncertainties... ... Being ruffled to the extreme...----------------Bhashwati wrote:

Looks like you took this picture late at night. Whenever you took it, it is very startling.So many lines and curves and waves.i can sense them on my finger tips.The text for feathers connects with the image in a very unexpected manner and i heart that. i also heart that the words came not as a flowing account but in short broken clauses, disrupted and disjointed much like lives faced with devastation.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

The subject of the child bride must be part of almost all human cultures, manifesting itself in different forms, like, at best, marriage; at worst kidnapping, molestation, rape, purchase, prostitution, enslavement, etc.

In India, while myriads of writers have dealt with the subject, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya, arguably one of the best writers of prose of whom India, and particularly Bengal, are proud, wrote most movingly on the subject, to emancipate the girl child as well as women.

There have been countless books on the subject. The ones that have been filmed in India have, among them, one which recurs again and again because of its name, Balika Bodhu (English: Child Bride), written by Bimal Kar, who received the Sahitya Akademi award, India's highest award for literature, in 1975.

In reality, the premium on virginity or on very young females continues to fascinate the so-called virility and sexual dominance of men throughout the world, whether through marriage or without it.

Indeed, human sexuality, at best, is the most unfair among all living creatures. At worst, it is 'inhuman'. Apart from Men being the main benefactors, in a lighter vein, the second biggest beneficiary is the profession of psychiatry.

My picture is a contrast to what I have written about, because of the tranquility and joy of anticipation in the eyes of the subject.

Summary: Representatives of 195 nations reached an agreement that will commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change.

Traditionally, such pacts have required developed economies like the United States to take action to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but they have exempted developing countries like China and India from such obligations.

The accord, which United Nations diplomats have been working toward for nine years, changes that dynamic by requiring action in some form from every country, rich or poor.

The new deal will not, on its own, solve global warming. At best, scientists who have analyzed it say, it will cut global greenhouse gas emissions by about half enough as is necessary to stave off an increase in atmospheric temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. That is the point at which, scientific studies have concluded, the world will be locked into a future of devastating consequences, including rising sea levels, severe droughts and flooding, widespread food and water shortages and more destructive storms... (Link)

As far as I know, this is the first time that a phrase like "devastating consequences" has been so strongly phrased and emphasized. However, my take, from the year 1966-67, has been unchanged. The very nature as part of the DNA of Homo Sapiens is unceasingly inventive and therefore incapable of drawing a line in his quest constantly to alter, and in the process to defy the very laws which govern to protect our planet Earth. He cannot stop this compulsion which sacrifices everything in nature's order, and continues to increase in number, and what he considers levels of comfort by defying and changing these laws. Among all the harm this unstoppable tendency brings, the most important is the fact that the population continues to grow. That is where the problem is: the more his numbers grow, the more he consumes, and this consumption deprades the unrenewable ecological balance, which supports all life, but most importantly, his.

And this is not addressed or perhaps not addressable. And hence, perdition. The only question is, how soon the doom.

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Friday, December 04, 2015

More than at other times, during rains I get all worked up and ecstatic with Tagore's poetry, on a subject which seemed especially to inspire him: about, on, full of, rain, rain.Today Nancy Gandhi has again stirred me with her two pictures of our balcony. But alas, I am not Tagore.The above is with abject apologies to the people who are suffering all around Madras and the extended environment of the Southern peninsula of India. The only comfort or hopelessness which prevents me from breaking down altogether is that we who are affected by the current crisis are not the only people or place; that the whole world is by turn going to be bulldozed into submission and gradual perdition by man's belief that he controls not only the earth, but possibly the cosmos. He holds periodic meetings and conferences in the most affluent and luxurious venues to assert that man will overcome the so-called 'climate change.'Ha.See my earlier blogpost on climate change:

for additional material on the subject of Climate Change, which was sent to President, Obama, the Pope, Hillary Clinton, and other believers in man's ability to change the climate, even as he is being consumed by his own depredation of the planet.

YOUR COOL SPRAY ON MY THROBBING TEMPLESTHROUGH THE WINDOWTHE SOUNDS OF YOUR CARESSON THE MILDLY PROTESTING PANESAND WHISPERSCOAXING THE LEAVES TO SUBMISSIONAND THE INTOXICATING AROMAOF AROUSED PASSION RISING FROM THE EARTHDIFFUSE INTO MY BEINGAND STIR TO LIFE THE DEADENED HOPES

IN HUMILITY I SMUGLY FEEL WRAPPEDWITH VISIONS OF YOUR POWERINFUSING LIFE OR DESTROYING ITAS YOU REIGN UNRELENTINGLYBESTOWING MOODILY YOUR FAVOURSTENDERLY IN A COMPASSIONATE SHOWER HEREOR LASHING IN DEVASTATING FURY THEREGERMINATING NOW OR UPROOTINGIMPETUOUSLY, INEXORABLYIN A STUPENDOUS ACTOF INCLEMENT COPULATIONURGENT, HYSTERICALINSATIATE AND OVERWHELMINGDEMANDING NOTHING LESS THAN TOTAL SURRENDER

AND EVEN AS YOU DEPARTLEAVING THE EARTHRAVAGED AND RAVISHED AND FECUNDIN PAIN IT PINES AND THIRSTS

AS ALSO I DOAS I LIE ON MY BED BY THE WINDOWCRIPPLED, WASTED, DISCARDED, EMPTY

Thursday, November 05, 2015

some one's privacy being invaded by ideology, that is an
ideology being thrust upon / injected into, a neutral space where the
individual exists, or a (rare) unbiased consciousness being indoctrinated.

And the image almost a literal visualisation of my
interpretation :)

layers of consciousness / pure thought being set aside by
the invader, to delve into the deeper darker protected core of one (who) is not
submitting entirely without resistance though.

I honour a great poet, and a great simile that he versified. As a statement, it is indeed a very powerful image; but as much as I tried to recall any hungry, poor, deprived man or woman or child, or even myself when I was indigent, to even have thought of the moon, as an edible object, let alone a burnt one, I could not. Truly, among all thoughts that pass their minds, the moon, stars, clouds are excluded. This is not to deny Sukantobabu his greatness, or poetic licence.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

From time immemorial, especially in infancy, people have longed to be invisible, roaming among the unsuspecting populace, living out their fantasies of power and freedom.One difficulty in living it, living a life invisibly, was relating to the rest of the world. H. G. Wells found a solution, which was to dress the supposed invisible form in bandages, clothing, or some material, which would enable him to interact in society when required.In 1897 H.G. Wells published his novel, The Invisible Man, in which he finally crystallized this fantasy, conjured it into words, gave it form, and immortalized it. To this day it remains a classic.

For me, Ralph Ellison's "The Invisible Man" 1957 is the definitive
work on this topic. My reply:

I respect your feelings about Ellison's The Invisible Man, and the esteem and complexity of feelings it must have left on your psyche.My Invisible Man, with allusion to H. G. Wells' pioneering scientific speculations, curiosities and tales, is entirely a different matter. Also, most importantly in the context of my picture posting, the allusion can by no stretch of the imagination be anything but to Wells' solving the problem of a human child's psychological, fascination and curiosity about the implications of becoming invisible, and then leading on to acquiring physical presence by bandage or equivalent clothing material. That was most paramount.Please allow me to insist that, to the extent and in the direction I was headed, the first known work, to me, and therefore the establishing, authentic writing was H.G. Wells' Invisible Man. Ralph Ellison took the name inspirationally from the original, and altered the context. The question here is not the better or the best, or the most informed and influential work, but the one which speculated and roused curiosity in me for the first time by written language. That was Wells.I hope you will accept my humble offering.

I saw the post 29 minutes after you put it and reeled
at the dazzling hues and their arrangement.

It is like a musical arrangement almost, with the tones
(notes) placed for optimum effect.

The texture mesmerises with its seductive softness.

And then there is the text, the vastness of the unknown
juxtaposed against the insignificant scientific knowledge (mass matter gravity
et al.) that ignorant humans wear like halos around their inflated heads as they
dance merrily en route to perdition.

Monday, October 05, 2015

In conjunction with my post on Climate Change: Saving Our Planet: The Limitless Vanity of Man / Environment and Man, I am posting the following link to a series of videos about climate change, featuring Julia Roberts (Mother Nature), Harrison Ford (The Ocean), Kevin Spacey (The Rainforest), Edward Norton (The Soil), Penélope Cruz (Water), Robert Redford (The Redwood) and Ian Somerhalder (Coral Reef), who all join forces to give nature a voice.

Please watch the entire video series. It is brief, and will not consume your lifetime, but will enlighten your understanding of how life originated, and how We, Humans, are the only ones who are bent upon, and now choiceless, to destroy it.

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Here is a transcript of the video, and a link:209 Seconds That Will Make You Question Your Entire ExistenceThis is earth!This is where you live.And this is where you live in our solar system.Here is the distance, to scale, between the Earth and the Moon.Not that far, right?Inside that distance you can fit every planet in our solar system.With about 4,392 km or 2,729 miles to spare.Jupiter is so large, this green smudge is North America.And here's Earth (well, six Earths) compared with Saturn.But that's nothing compared to our Sun.Here's a photo of Earth from the Moon.And here's that same Earth from Mars.That insignificant little dot there, that's Earth.From around 4 billion miles away.Okay. So here's Earth compared to the sun.Terrifying, right?Well, there are stars out there much, much bigger than our wimpy sun.Arcturus. Over 16,000 times larger in volume than our sun.Alpha Scorpii A. About 690 million times larger in volume than our sun.VY Canis Majoris. About 2.9 billion times larger in volume than our sun.Our sun is barely even visible at this scale.That's nuts, but it's nothing compared to the size of a galaxy.So, the sun is just under 1,400,000 km wide. That's big, right?Well, our Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 LIGHT YEARS in diameter.That's roughly 950,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers.The Milky Way galaxy is huge.Here is where you live inside there.And in this yellow circle are the only stars you're able to see at night.But even our galaxy is a little runt compared with some others.This is IC1011, it is 6,000,000 LIGHT YEARS wide.Just think about all that could be inside there.But let's think bigger!The Hubble Telescope took this picture.It contains thousands of galaxies...each galaxy containing billions of stars...each star orbited by its own planets.And all of that was seen in this small patch of sky.So if you're ever feeling upset, just remember...This is your home.This is what happens when you zoom out.and farther out to the Solar Interstellar Neighborhood...and farther...keep going...just a little bit farther...almost there...Here it is. Everything in the observable universe. And here's your place in it.Oh, man.